The Twins will have played 62 games when Philadelphia leaves town after Thursday's game. Barring a mishap, Joe Mauer will have started 56 of those games and have 250 plate appearances. Justin Morneau will have started 46 games and be close to 200 plate appearances.

These are hopeful trends in comparison to the final 62 games of 2011, when the Twins went 16-46 to finish at 63-99. Over those 62 games, Mauer started 39 games and totaled 166 plate appearances. Morneau started 14 games with 56 plate appearances.

That season-ending collapse caused the fan base to go from disillusioned to angry. And the conventional wisdom became that the Twins never again would see their former MVPs as regular and productive members of the lineup.

Mauer missed four games last week because of a thumb injury. Morneau had a stay on the disabled list when there was a flare-up in his surgically repaired wrist.

Still, in the midst of the pessimism of this spring over how much duty could be expected from Mauer and Morneau, there can't be anyone in Twins Land legitimately upset over what has been seen to this point.